World Athletics Championships prize money
World Athletics put up $8,498,000 for the 2025 World Championships, 13 to 21 September 2025 at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo. A world title paid $70,000 and the money ran eight places deep in every event, which is deeper than any other meeting in the sport pays. Armand Duplantis left with more of it than anyone, $170,000.
The ladder is $70,000 · $35,000 · $22,000 · $16,000 · $11,000 · $7,000 · $6,000 · $5,000 for first to 8th, which is $172,000 an individual event, and $186,000 across the same eight places in a relay. Multiply it out across 44 individual events and five relays and it comes to the $8,498,000 exactly.
Who earned the most in Tokyo
The 2025 World Championships money list
Armand Duplantis tops it on a single afternoon's work: $70,000 for the men's pole vault and $100,000 for clearing 6.30, the only world record of the championships. Below that the list is won by turning up twice. 18 of the 334 athletes were paid in more than one event, and the rest of the top of the table is a single title plus whatever a second final added.
Every final in Tokyo
What each event paid, and who won it
| EVENT | WINNER | MARK | IN THE FINAL | PAID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men's 100 metres | Oblique Seville | 9.77 | 8 | $167,000 |
| Men's 200 metres | Noah Lyles | 19.52 | 8 | $172,000 |
| Men's 400 metres | Collen Kebinatshipi | 43.53 | 8 | $172,000 |
| Men's 800 metres | Emmanuel Wanyonyi | 1:41.86 | 8 | $172,000 |
| Men's 1500 metres | Isaac Nader | 3:34.10 | 14 | $172,000 |
| Men's 5000 metres | Cole Hocker | 12:58.30 | 16 | $172,000 |
| Men's 10,000 metres | Jimmy Gressier | 28:55.77 | 27 | $172,000 |
| Men's marathon | Alphonce Simbu | 2:09:48 | 90 | $172,000 |
| Men's 400 metres hurdles | Rai Benjamin | 46.52 | 8 | $172,000 |
| Men's 3000 metres steeplechase | Geordie Beamish | 8:33.88 | 16 | $172,000 |
| Men's 20 kilometres walk | Caio Bonfim | 1:18:35 | 48 | $172,000 |
| Men's 35 kilometres walk | Evan Dunfee | 2:28:22 | 50 | $172,000 |
| Men's high jump | Hamish Kerr | 2.36 m | 13 | $172,000 |
| Men's pole vault | Armand Duplantis | 6.30 | 12 | $172,000 |
| Men's long jump | Mattia Furlani | 8.39 m | 12 | $172,000 |
| Men's triple jump | Pedro Pichardo | 17.91 | 12 | $172,000 |
| Men's shot put | Ryan Crouser | 22.34 m | 12 | $172,000 |
| Men's discus throw | Daniel Ståhl | 70.47m | 12 | $172,000 |
| Men's hammer throw | Ethan Katzberg | 84.70 m | 12 | $172,000 |
| Men's javelin throw | Keshorn Walcott | 88.16 m | 12 | $172,000 |
| Men's 110 metres hurdles | Cordell Tinch | 12.99 | 8 | $167,000 |
| Men's decathlon | Leo Neugebauer | 8804 | 24 | $172,000 |
| Women's 100 metres | Melissa Jefferson-Wooden | 10.61 | 8 | $172,000 |
| Women's 200 metres | Melissa Jefferson-Wooden | 21.68 | 9 | $172,000 |
| Women's 400 metres | Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone | 47.78 | 8 | $172,000 |
| Women's 800 metres | Lilian Odira | 1:54.62 | 8 | $172,000 |
| Women's 1500 metres | Faith Kipyegon | 3:52.15 | 14 | $172,000 |
| Women's 5000 metres | Beatrice Chebet | 14:54.36 | 16 | $172,000 |
| Women's 10,000 metres | Beatrice Chebet | 30:37.61 | 27 | $172,000 |
| Women's marathon | Peres Jepchirchir | 2:24:43 | 73 | $172,000 |
| Women's 400 metres hurdles | Femke Bol | 51.54 | 8 | $172,000 |
| Women's 3000 metres steeplechase | Faith Cherotich | 8:51.59 | 15 | $172,000 |
| Women's 20 kilometres walk | María Pérez | 1:25:54 | 49 | $172,000 |
| Women's 35 kilometres walk | María Pérez | 2:39:01 | 47 | $172,000 |
| Women's high jump | Nicola Olyslagers | 2.00 m | 16 | $172,000 |
| Women's pole vault | Katie Moon | 4.90 | 14 | $172,000 |
| Women's long jump | Tara Davis-Woodhall | 7.13 m | 12 | $172,000 |
| Women's triple jump | Leyanis Pérez | 14.94 | 12 | $172,000 |
| Women's shot put | Jessica Schilder | 20.29 | 12 | $172,000 |
| Women's discus throw | Valarie Allman | 69.48 m | 12 | $172,000 |
| Women's hammer throw | Camryn Rogers | 80.51 m | 12 | $172,000 |
| Women's javelin throw | Juleisy Angulo | 65.12 m | 12 | $172,000 |
| Women's 100 metres hurdles | Ditaji Kambundji | 12.24 | 8 | $172,000 |
| Women's heptathlon | Anna Hall | 6888 | 24 | $172,000 |
| Men's 4 × 100 metres relay | United States | 37.29 | 8 | $182,000 |
| Men's 4 × 400 metres relay | Botswana | 2:57.76 | 9 | $186,000 |
| Women's 4 × 100 metres relay | United States | 41.75 | 8 | $182,000 |
| Women's 4 × 400 metres relay | United States | 3:16.61 | 8 | $186,000 |
| Mixed 4 × 400 metres relay | United States | 3:08.80 | 8 | $186,000 |
| 49 events | 74 countries paid | — | 887 | $8,480,000$8.5m |
Every individual event pays the same $172,000 and every relay the same $186,000, so the right-hand column only moves where a final was not completed by eight. That happened four times in Tokyo, and those four finals are the whole of the $18,000 the championships did not pay out.
What each place pays
The ladder World Athletics published for Tokyo
| PLACE | INDIVIDUAL | RELAY TEAM | SHARE OF THE EVENT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | $70,000 | $80,000 | 40.7% |
| 2nd | $35,000 | $40,000 | 20.3% |
| 3rd | $22,000 | $20,000 | 12.8% |
| 4th | $16,000 | $16,000 | 9.3% |
| 5th | $11,000 | $12,000 | 6.4% |
| 6th | $7,000 | $8,000 | 4.1% |
| 7th | $6,000 | $6,000 | 3.5% |
| 8th | $5,000 | $4,000 | 2.9% |
| An event | $172,000 | $186,000 | 100.0% |
The winner takes 41% of what an event pays out and the other seven places share the rest, which is the shape of every final on the programme. The drop from first to second is $35,000, and the bottom four places together come to $29,000, less than second place on its own.
What each country took home
Individual money, record bonuses and the relay purses their teams won
| # | COUNTRY | ATHLETES | WINS | PAYMENTS | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 53 | 16 | 63 | $1,781,500$1.8m |
| 2 | Kenya | 18 | 7 | 20 | $714,000 |
| 3 | Jamaica | 17 | 1 | 21 | $450,000 |
| 4 | Sweden | 6 | 2 | 6 | $295,000 |
| 5 | Canada | 5 | 3 | 7 | $294,000 |
| 6 | Netherlands | 8 | 2 | 12 | $294,000 |
| 7 | Italy | 12 | 1 | 15 | $284,500 |
| 8 | Germany | 13 | 1 | 15 | $282,500 |
| 9 | Spain | 12 | 2 | 14 | $248,000 |
| 10 | Great Britain | 13 | 0 | 17 | $247,500 |
| 11 | France | 11 | 1 | 16 | $206,500 |
| 12 | Botswana | 5 | 2 | 6 | $198,000 |
| 13 | Ethiopia | 12 | 0 | 13 | $194,000 |
| 14 | New Zealand | 6 | 2 | 6 | $186,500 |
| 15 | China | 12 | 0 | 12 | $184,000 |
| 16 | Australia | 7 | 1 | 8 | $182,000 |
| 17 | Cuba | 6 | 1 | 6 | $148,000 |
| 18 | Portugal | 3 | 2 | 3 | $147,000 |
| 19 | Brazil | 2 | 1 | 3 | $140,000 |
| 20 | Poland | 7 | 0 | 9 | $120,000 |
| 21 | Ecuador | 2 | 1 | 3 | $108,000 |
| 22 | Trinidad and Tobago | 2 | 1 | 2 | $105,000 |
| 23 | Switzerland | 4 | 1 | 4 | $104,000 |
| 24 | Japan | 9 | 0 | 11 | $100,500 |
| 25 | Belgium | 2 | 0 | 5 | $94,000 |
| 26 | South Africa | 5 | 0 | 7 | $77,000 |
| 27 | Tanzania | 1 | 1 | 1 | $70,000 |
| 28 | Bahrain | 4 | 0 | 4 | $70,000 |
| 29 | Mexico | 2 | 0 | 2 | $70,000 |
| 30 | Nigeria | 4 | 0 | 4 | $69,000 |
| 31 | Ukraine | 5 | 0 | 5 | $65,000 |
| 32 | Algeria | 2 | 0 | 2 | $51,000 |
| 33 | Ireland | 2 | 0 | 2 | $51,000 |
| 34 | Lithuania | 3 | 0 | 3 | $48,000 |
| 35 | Greece | 2 | 0 | 2 | $46,000 |
| 36 | Morocco | 2 | 0 | 2 | $46,000 |
| 37 | Dominican Republic | 2 | 0 | 2 | $42,000 |
| 38 | Norway | 4 | 0 | 5 | $39,000 |
| 39 | Qatar | 2 | 0 | 3 | $39,000 |
| 40 | Czechia | 2 | 0 | 2 | $38,000 |
| 41 | Dominica | 1 | 0 | 1 | $35,000 |
| 42 | Grenada | 1 | 0 | 1 | $35,000 |
| 43 | Latvia | 1 | 0 | 1 | $35,000 |
| 44 | Puerto Rico | 1 | 0 | 1 | $35,000 |
| 45 | South Korea | 1 | 0 | 1 | $35,000 |
| 46 | Finland | 3 | 0 | 3 | $33,000 |
| 47 | Colombia | 2 | 0 | 2 | $29,000 |
| 48 | Slovakia | 2 | 0 | 2 | $28,000 |
| 49 | India | 3 | 0 | 3 | $27,500 |
| 50 | Hungary | 2 | 0 | 2 | $27,000 |
| 51 | Slovenia | 2 | 0 | 2 | $27,000 |
| 52 | Serbia | 2 | 0 | 2 | $24,000 |
| 53 | Israel | 2 | 0 | 2 | $22,000 |
| 54 | Saint Lucia | 1 | 0 | 1 | $22,000 |
| 55 | Samoa | 1 | 0 | 1 | $22,000 |
| 56 | Uruguay | 1 | 0 | 1 | $22,000 |
| 57 | Venezuela | 1 | 0 | 1 | $22,000 |
| 58 | Uganda | 2 | 0 | 2 | $17,000 |
| 59 | Ghana | 0 | 0 | 1 | $16,000 |
| 60 | Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 1 | $16,000 |
| 61 | Bahamas | 2 | 0 | 2 | $12,000 |
| 62 | Ivory Coast | 1 | 0 | 2 | $12,000 |
| 63 | Bulgaria | 1 | 0 | 1 | $11,000 |
| 64 | Croatia | 1 | 0 | 1 | $11,000 |
| 65 | Estonia | 1 | 0 | 1 | $11,000 |
| 66 | Panama | 1 | 0 | 1 | $11,000 |
| 67 | Peru | 1 | 0 | 1 | $11,000 |
| 68 | Kazakhstan | 1 | 0 | 1 | $7,000 |
| 69 | Senegal | 1 | 0 | 1 | $7,000 |
| 70 | Burkina Faso | 1 | 0 | 1 | $6,000 |
| 71 | Sri Lanka | 1 | 0 | 1 | $6,000 |
| 72 | Zimbabwe | 1 | 0 | 1 | $6,000 |
| 73 | Denmark | 1 | 0 | 1 | $5,000 |
| 74 | Eritrea | 1 | 0 | 1 | $5,000 |
| 74 | countries paid | 334 | 49 | 390 | $8,580,000$8.6m |
The United States took $1,781,500 of it, 20.8% of everything paid in Tokyo, from 63 payments. A country's figure here is depth rather than gold: eighth place pays $5,000 and a team that fills a final with three athletes collects three times. 5 relay titles were won, four of them by the United States, and each is $80,000 to the federation rather than to the four who ran.
The $18,000 nobody collected
Places on the ladder that no athlete or team finished in
| EVENT | PLACE | FINISHED | UNPAID |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's 100 metres | 8th | 7 | $5,000 |
| Men's 110 metres hurdles | 8th | 7 | $5,000 |
| Men's 4 × 100 metres relay | 8th | 7 | $4,000 |
| Women's 4 × 100 metres relay | 8th | 7 | $4,000 |
| four finals | — | — | $18,000 |
A ladder eight places deep only pays out in full when eight athletes or teams complete the final. In Tokyo four of them did not: men's 100 metres, men's 110 metres hurdles, men's 4 × 100 metres relay and women's 4 × 100 metres relay. The money for the place simply stayed where it was, which is why $8,480,000 of a $8,498,000 pot reached somebody and $18,000 did not.
The places two athletes shared
A tie splits the money of both places it occupies
| EVENT | TIED | PLACE | MARK | EACH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men's high jump | Sarvesh Kushare and Tyus Wilson | =6 | 2.28 m | $6,500 |
| Men's high jump | Matteo Sioli and Ryoichi Akamatsu | =8 | 2.24 m | $2,500 |
| Women's high jump | Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Angelina Topić | =3 | 1.97 m | $19,000 |
| Women's high jump | Yuliya Levchenko and Eleanor Patterson | =5 | 1.97 m | $9,000 |
| Women's high jump | Christina Honsel and Morgan Lake | =7 | 1.93 m | $5,500 |
| Women's pole vault | Hana Moll and Amanda Moll | =6 | 4.65 | $6,500 |
| Women's pole vault | Marie-Julie Bonnin and Olivia McTaggart | =8 | 4.65 | $2,500 |
| Women's heptathlon | Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Taliyah Brooks | =3 | 6581 | $19,000 |
Two athletes level for 6th take the 6th and 7th money between them and halve it, so nobody is paid twice out of a pot that reconciles to the dollar.
Frequently asked questions
How much prize money did the 2025 World Athletics Championships pay?
$8,498,000 was put up for 49 events in Tokyo, and $8,480,000 of it was paid out across 390 payments to 334 athletes and 38 relay teams. Four places nobody finished in account for the $18,000 difference. Armand Duplantis's world record added $100,000 on top of the pot.
What does a world title pay?
$70,000, in every one of the 44 individual events. A 100 m title and a hammer title are worth the same, and the ladder runs $70,000, $35,000, $22,000, $16,000, $11,000, $7,000, $6,000 and $5,000 down to 8th, which is $172,000 an event. A winning relay team takes $80,000.
How far down does the prize money go at the World Championships?
Eight places, in every event on the programme, which is deeper than any other meeting in athletics publishes. Eighth in an individual final is worth $5,000 and eighth in a relay $4,000. The 44 individual events and five relays multiply out to exactly the $8,498,000 that was put up, so nothing is held back and nothing is unaccounted for.
Who earned the most at the 2025 World Championships?
Armand Duplantis, on $170,000: $70,000 for winning the men's pole vault and $100,000 for the world record he set doing it. 18 of the 334 athletes paid in Tokyo were paid in more than one event.
Is there a bonus for a world record?
Yes, $100,000, and it sits on top of the pot rather than inside it. Armand Duplantis was the only athlete to earn it in Tokyo, with 6.30 in the men's pole vault, which took $70,000 of place money to $170,000 and made it the biggest single haul of the championships.
What happens when two athletes tie?
They share the money of the two places they occupy. Sarvesh Kushare and Tyus Wilson tied for 6th in the men's high jump, so the $7,000 and $6,000 for 6th and 7th came to $6,500 each. There were eight shared places in Tokyo, seven of them in a high jump or a pole vault where two cleared the same height.
Which country won the most prize money in Tokyo?
The United States, on $1,781,500 from 63 payments and sixteen wins, out of 74 countries that were paid at all. 53 of the 334 athletes paid individually were American.
Do relay runners get paid individually?
No. A relay place is paid to the team as one purse, $80,000 for a win down to $4,000 for 8th, and how a federation splits it between the four who ran is not published. The five relays account for $922,000 of the $8,480,000 paid in Tokyo.
Where to next
The rest of the athletics money
Diamond League prize money holds the series these athletes race all summer, $53,753,250 of it, meeting by meeting. Ultimate Championship prize money is the 2026 championship in Budapest, where a win paid $150,000 against $70,000 here. Every event below opens on its own final, all eight paid places and the marks that won them.
Every event in Tokyo
- Men's 100 metres
- Men's 200 metres
- Men's 400 metres
- Men's 800 metres
- Men's 1500 metres
- Men's 5000 metres
- Men's 10,000 metres
- Men's marathon
- Men's 400 metres hurdles
- Men's 3000 metres steeplechase
- Men's 20 kilometres walk
- Men's 35 kilometres walk
- Men's high jump
- Men's pole vault
- Men's long jump
- Men's triple jump
- Men's shot put
- Men's discus throw
- Men's hammer throw
- Men's javelin throw
- Men's 110 metres hurdles
- Men's decathlon
- Women's 100 metres
- Women's 200 metres
- Women's 400 metres
- Women's 800 metres
- Women's 1500 metres
- Women's 5000 metres
- Women's 10,000 metres
- Women's marathon
- Women's 400 metres hurdles
- Women's 3000 metres steeplechase
- Women's 20 kilometres walk
- Women's 35 kilometres walk
- Women's high jump
- Women's pole vault
- Women's long jump
- Women's triple jump
- Women's shot put
- Women's discus throw
- Women's hammer throw
- Women's javelin throw
- Women's 100 metres hurdles
- Women's heptathlon
- Men's 4 × 100 metres relay
- Men's 4 × 400 metres relay
- Women's 4 × 100 metres relay
- Women's 4 × 400 metres relay
- Mixed 4 × 400 metres relay
The athletes who were paid the most
- Armand Duplantis
- Beatrice Chebet
- Melissa Jefferson-Wooden
- Faith Kipyegon
- Jimmy Gressier
- Noah Lyles
- Anna Hall
- Cole Hocker
- Collen Kebinatshipi
- Cordell Tinch
- Daniel Ståhl
- Ditaji Kambundji
- Emmanuel Wanyonyi
- Faith Cherotich
- Femke Bol
- Geordie Beamish
- Hamish Kerr
- Isaac Nader
- Jessica Schilder
- Juleisy Angulo
- Katie Moon
- Keshorn Walcott
- Leyanis Pérez
- Lilian Odira
- Mattia Furlani
- Nicola Olyslagers
- Oblique Seville
- Pedro Pichardo
- Rai Benjamin
- Ryan Crouser